Daniel B. Brewster, 83; war hero became a senator from Maryland

Daniel Baugh Brewster, 83, a former U.S. senator from Maryland and decorated World War II hero who was wounded seven times, died Sunday at his home in Owings Mills, Md., from liver cancer, his son Gerry Brewster said.

Brewster, a Democrat, was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates to represent Baltimore County in 1950 at age 26. He later served in the U.S. House of Representatives before being elected to the U.S. Senate.

He ran as a stand-in candidate for President Lyndon B. Johnson in the Maryland presidential primary in 1964 when former Alabama Gov. George Wallace, a segregationist, ran in Maryland’s primary.

In 1969, Brewster was indicted and found guilty of accepting an unlawful gratuity without corrupt intent, relating to his vote for low postal rates and campaign contributions from a mail-order catalog.

The conviction was overturned on appeal, but authorities indicated that they would prosecute him again, his son said, so Brewster decided to plead no contest to accepting an unlawful gratuity without corrupt intent in 1975. He was fined $10,000 and allowed to keep his law license.

A native of Baltimore County, Md., Brewster attended Princeton University and enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1942. He was awarded a Bronze Star and Purple Heart after the Battle of Sugar Loaf Hill on Okinawa.